Chicken under a brick? Been there. Steak on a shovel? Done that. Beer can chicken? Please. So this week, I'm starting a series of blogs on extreme grilling. First up, using a military strength blowtorch to caramelize spit-roasted pineapple.

]]>Chicken under a brick? Been there. Steak on a shovel? Done that. Beer can chicken? Please. So this week, I’m starting a series of blogs on extreme grilling. First up, using a military strength blowtorch to caramelize spit-roasted pineapple.

The device pictured above is an industrial-strength blowtorch used for roofing and “search and destroy” landscaping. One popular model is the 100,000 BTU Red Dragon–you can find it at www.amazon.com–which runs off a propane tank. That’s right–the sort that fires your gas grill. The pineapples have been crusted with cinnamon sugar and caramelized candy crisp.

So how else can a blowtorch help you become a better griller?

1. Use it for lighting charcoal–no need to resort to using lighter fluid.
2. Sprinkle Catalan creams, creme brulees, and even sliced bananas with sugar, then use your blowtorch to melt it into a hardened candy shell.
3. At the restaurant O-Ya in Boston, they use a blowtorch on sushi to coax the fish’s flavorful oils to the surface. And at a sushi bar in Santa Monica I saw an innovative chef lay a sushi-grade slab of albacore tuna on a cypress plank and kiss it with the focused flame of a blowtorch. The latter was then served with a ginger sauce.

Our new favorite North American restaurant isn’t a barbecue joint. It’s the very antithesis of live fire cooking–an uber-hip, sushi centric restaurant in Boston’s old leather district called O-Ya. But despite the predominance of raw seafood, O-Ya makes ingenious use of live fire. Pictured above: O-Ya founder Tim Cushman (right), Steven, and chef Hiroyuki “Hiro” Konish from Japan.

So what’s the deal with the blowtorch? Turns out that a quick blast of fire brings the flavorful oils in the fish to the surface. The resulting smoke flavor makes this unlike any sushi you’ve probably tasted. No wonder O-Ya was Food & Wine Magazine’s restaurant of the year last year.

]]>http://barbecuebible.com/2009/10/29/grilled-sushi/feed/0So What’s New in the World of Barbecue?http://barbecuebible.com/2008/12/05/so-whats-new-in-the-world-of-barbecue/
http://barbecuebible.com/2008/12/05/so-whats-new-in-the-world-of-barbecue/#commentsFri, 05 Dec 2008 08:29:33 +0000http://barbecuebible.com.erlbaum.net/?p=259

So What's New in the World of Barbecue?

Earlier this fall, Steven traveled to Cologne, Germany, to attend the largest barbecue expo in Europe.

Earlier this fall, Steven traveled to Cologne, Germany, to attend the largest barbecue expo in Europe. SPOGA brings together some of the world’s most ingenious inventors and grill and accessory manufacturers. Here are some items that caught Steven’s eye.

A blast-furnace strength blowtorch for lighting charcoal without lighter fluid. Manufactured by Grilly.

Rotisserie Grill by Hot Design. (www.hotdesign.us)
Big enough to cook a family-size pig. Small enough to fold up in the trunk of a car.

Check out the latest addition to Steven’s grilling arsenal: an
industrial strength (or should we say military strength)
blowtorch.

Normally designed for melting sheets of ice, heating
roofing materials, and burning acres of weeds off hillsides, the
monster blowtorch makes a very handy and impressive tool tool for
grilling. One application is using it to light charcoal.
Another is to help speed up the caramelization process on grilled
foods, like the spit roasted pineapple featured here. Peel the
pineapple and brush with melted butter, then sprinkle it with
cinnamon sugar or dessert rub. (Or make a glaze by boiling equal
parts butter, brown sugar, rum, and heavy cream.) Place the
pineapple on the spit. Use the monster blowtorch to augment the
the heat of the rotisserie burner. Steven got his blowtorch from
our friend Rocky Richmond, creator of the Big Drum Smoker
You’ll definitely be the toughest grill master on the block!